CD Review

One For Jude – “Helice”

By Marcus Pan

Very brooding yet remaining melodic, One For Jude's Helice four track release somehow manages to stray both the dirty-garage yet masterfully-produced trails. Lebloui for instance is a smooth acoustic French song that keeps a shoegazery basement appeal but can still contend with the overly produced and mastered CDs one can pick up at Sam Goody. Romantic to its core with cojoined strings (cello, violin, who knows what else) building to a moody climactic close.

Only vaguely electronic and modern, its classical charm is aptly showcased. The live cut of Helice, performed live in Prague (2002), is the least produced of the bunch and probably the only possible miss on the short collection due to its barely discernible mix. For a much more professional feel, this song's studio version opens Helice. Slightly off-kilter rhythmically, but not so much as to damage the flow, the mixed wind instruments support a sweet male vocal laced with melancholy.

Helice is a short album, and if you consider that the live Helice at the end isn't nearly as fulfilling as the rest you might say that alone loses a quarter of the album...moreso since it's seven minutes in length to the other’s 4-6 each. But the temperament and classical skill apparent here from France's One For Jude is rarely come across in today's muckety muck of electro-modernization. Just for the idea that classical can still play and perform alongside goth's dark rock bands just as well will alone make One For Jude worth looking into.

Contact Information:
One For Jude
Post: 37 Bd St Jacques, 75014 Paris, France
E-Mail: farandole@netcourrier.com